See:

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2006/07/166838.php

There they go, trying to change the subject again. They *really* don't want you to learn from the past.

"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -- Orwell

And speaking of the present, this is what it's like:

http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/2006/07/collective-punishment-and-state.html

COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT AND STATE TERRORISM

Dear all
my freind hoda , lives next to the ministry of interior building , in Gaza, that was hit last night with 2 rockets ,the attack occured 2am yesterday,please forgive me about the accuracy , l am starting to lose track of days and nights , and how many times we were attacked , hoda told me that the whole building was shaking ,she went out ,with her pyjamas , all the residents were out in their night wear ,children faces were too pale ,some of them were crying hystiricaly,the fume filled the place , the flat next door were largely damaged(it is the next to the building that was targeted),where a fmily with 6 children live ,there was large fire, the firee brigades used her flat , to put off the fire, the Ministry of interior building was empty during the attack !!!!,the aim was revenge and destroyingof the building ,i live 150 meters from Hoda place , no body is safe no one is immune .what happened with Hoda reminded me with the night when Late president ARafat headquarters in Gaza were attacked , 2 years ago, i live nearby , and too close , that night 37 shelling hit that building,


the power is still of ....we had it for 3 hours yesterday,enough to recharge my labtop,and mobile phone andto do some cooking
,i am highly concerened about the hospitals, the fuel supply to run the local generators is running down ,the borders are copletely sealed since the attack , no fuel was allowed inside gaza since that date,the medication and medical supplies are running down too,we donot have enough strategic storage , because of the previous ongoing sanctions , our drug stores are exhausted , the water supply is scarce too , we need to rationalise our wter use ,we are going through big humanitrian disaster ,


Sonic booming
when the get fighters ,go fastly through the sound barrier, we expereince this sort of terrifying raids at least 7 times ,in different times of the day and night,many international human rights orgs. appealed to Israel to stop this raids.knowing its harmful effect on people , they never used it before withdrawal from gaza

how can i let you know what is my personal feelings , during this raids,if iam sleeping my bed shakes tremendously,my dauhgter jumps to my bed,shivering with fear then both of us end up on the floor ,my heart beats go very fast , and i had to pacify my daughter , now she knows we need to pacify eachother , she feels my fear, if iam awake i flinch up and scream loudly , i cannot helpmyself , ok iam a doctor and mature middleaged woman with large experience and an activist too,but with this booming i go hystirical ,after all we are all humans and each have its own threshold ,hearing the sound of breaking windows is frightening too , many tin roofs in the refujee camps colapsed on the heads of families , as a result of this booming ,hospitals received large number of phsychologicaly traumatised children.


1.5 million residents in Gaza face COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT, feelings of hate will grow larger,and all these assaults and savage agressions against population , will not bring peace or security to Israel , only justice peace wil.

Israel is talking about security of its citizens ,against militiamen,who are armed with some home made fire sticks rockets,
Israel is talking about terrorism , what can i call this soonic booming and power plant attack , but STATE TERRORISM

yours in love and solidarity
Mona ElFarra

(snip)

Sleepless in Sderot
by Judy Lash Balint
June 18, 2006


In the early 1990s, I spent quite a bit of time in Sderot, one of Israel's southern development towns that sits at the northeastern tip of the Gaza Strip. At the time, I was coordinator of the Operation Exodus campaign of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, and Sderot was our twin community.

The idea was that a portion of the money raised in Seattle for Soviet emigration would be channeled directly to Sderot to help them absorb an additional 11,000 immigrants. The entire population of Sderot back then was only 12,000, so the town was expected to almost double its size over a period of just a few years.

I remember sitting in the sweltering conference room of the bare-bones municipality building in 1990, as city officials explained where the new neighborhood of pre-fab houses would be built, not far from the burgeoning industrial zone. There was optimism in the air despite the obvious challenges of integrating such large numbers of people who had little in common with the largely North African Sderot old-timers. The newcomers would revitalize the town and stimulate the economy, we were told, and Sderot would become an attractive regional center. A safe community, secure in its uncontroversial status inside the Green Line.

These memories came flooding back last week, as I sat in that same conference room listening to Eli Moyal, the ashen-faced, exhausted and exasperated Likud mayor of Sderot.

Not much has changed in the modest building -- the same tired-looking, once-white stucco covers the walls, and the giant size map of the city in the conference room hasn't been updated. But the most striking difference in that conference room is the 13 pictures of Sderot residents killed in terror and Kassam attacks. Several of them are children, including Ayala Abucassis, 17, who was killed by a Kassam rocket last year on a Sderot street. A couple of the terror victims are Russian-speaking immigrants.

Since the Israeli withdrawal from Gush Katif last summer, Sderot has become the new address for a barrage of Kassam rockets fired from the area of the now-destroyed Jewish communities of Dugit, Alei Sinai and Nisanit. According to IDF statistics, more than 600 Kassams have been launched against Israel from the Gaza Strip since last September. Several have targeted the Ashkelon industrial area, but it's Sderot, barely three miles away from Beit Hanoun, that has borne the brunt of the onslaught.

Last weekend alone, seventy of the crude arrowhead missiles were launched toward Israel. Four Israelis were wounded and a few buildings were damaged. Every time there's an incoming Kassam, a warning siren sounds. It's called ‘Red Dawn' and provides all of 15 seconds for people to dive next to a wall or under the bed. To say that the citizens of Sderot are on edge would be a severe understatement.

A group of residents is currently conducting a hunger strike in a small Sderot park. Their demand is simple - get the IDF to strike Beit Hanoun so they can live in peace and quiet. The park where they've set up their protest tent is a few yards away from the home of Defense Minister Amir Peretz, leader of Israel's Labor party. Peretz hasn't been home much lately - he's too busy issuing empty threats from Jerusalem. On Wednesday, Peretz clearly warned Hamas to stop launching rockets at southern Israel or "face the wrath of the IDF." One day later, when a Kassam collapses an industrial building in Sderot injuring one worker, Peretz tells the Knesset plenum his preference would be for both sides to work out their differences within the context of an agreement.

Anger at such government policy is palpable all over Sderot. Over at the AMIT High School, a few short yards away from the municipality and Sderot's central square, students are squeezed into the ground-floor classrooms since May 21, when a Kassam burst through the red-tile roof, shattering the ceiling of the 11th grade classroom. The teenage boys were finishing morning prayers in the school's synagogue when the missile hit.

"They're shocked, afraid. Everyone is frustrated at the government," Rabbi Amit Orenbuch, the soft-spoken school principal says. "The students feel that nothing is as it should be," he goes on. Orenbuch, himself a seven-year resident of Sderot, says this is the worst period he remembers in the town.

A few of the teenagers come out to talk to reporters. In the typical manner of teenage boys, they put on a facade of bravado - tense smiles cover their fears as they proclaim how they're okay and have no difficulties dealing with the situation.

Mayor Moyal has a more sober assessment of the effect of the Kassams on Sderot's children. "More than 50 percent of kids here are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome," he asserts. "It manifests in all kinds of ways - they're sleeping in their parents' beds, can't concentrate on their studies, taking pills."

Moyal pledges that by the end of the month, no kids will be left in Sderot. All 5,000 children will be sent to summer camps in other parts of the country to protect them from additional trauma.

Moyal isn't placated by government promises to reinforce schools with Kassam-proof roofs: "I don't believe in protection - what we need is to prevent the terrorists launching missiles at us. Israel isn't really fighting terror, our government is trying to negotiate with terrorists."

The Likud mayor doesn't mince words in conveying his disgust at his Palestinian neighbors. "There's no reason the Palestinians keep on sh***ing on us after we took all our troops out of Gaza. It's just blatant hatred, that's why they're shooting at us. There are no Palestinian demands on this land. I'm calling on the citizens of Sderot not to go anywhere - we'll stay here forever. Not because we're strong, but because we're right. We won't give them the satisfaction of giving in to terror."

At his press conferences with world leaders last week, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert barely mentioned the suffering citizens of Sderot. Mr. Olmert shouldn't expect a quiet homecoming.

ISRAELI MATH WRITES: "From an article by R.J. Rummel (there are footnotes in the original):

“In some occupied areas in which the Nazis had to contend with well organized and active guerrilla units, they applied a simple rule: they would massacre one hundred nearby civilians for every German soldier killed; fifty for every one wounded. Often this was a minimum that might be doubled or tripled. They thus killed vast numbers of innocent peasants and townsfolk, possibly as many as 8,000 in Kraguyevats, 1,755 in Kraljevo, and overall 80,000 in Jajinci, to name just in a few places in Yugoslavia alone."

BECKY: So the Israelis are just like the Nazis, huh? Sonic booms, tanks rolling in, arrests and detentions, some interruptions in the power supply. Bombing of EMPTY buildings! Shootings of GUNMEN?

PALESTINIAN DR. MONA ELFARRA WRITES: "Israel is talking about security of its citizens ,against militiamen, who are armed with some home made fire sticks rockets...."

JUDY BALINT WRITES: "Not much has changed in the modest building -- the same tired-looking, once-white stucco covers the walls, and the giant size map of the city in the conference room hasn't been updated. But the most striking difference in that conference room is the 13 pictures of Sderot residents killed in terror and Kassam attacks. Several of them are children, including Ayala Abucassis, 17, who was killed by a Kassam rocket last year on a Sderot street. A couple of the terror victims are Russian-speaking immigrants."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060627.LETTERS27-6/TPStory/?query=lavie

Toronto Globe and Mail
POSTED ON 27/06/06
Letter to The Editor


Two raids
NAFTALI LAVIE

Toronto -- As someone who has served in an Israeli tank
unit near Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, I have nothing but sympathy
for the families of Lieutenant Hanan Barak and Sergeant
Pavel Slutzker, killed on Sunday in a daring Palestinian
commando raid in which Corporal Gilad Shalit was taken
captive (Israel, Hamas In Turmoil After Raid On Outpost --
front page, June 26). But some perspective and some context
are necessary.

This tank base is one of the locations from which Israel
has been relentlessly shelling the Gaza Strip for several
weeks. Moreover, just one day earlier, on Saturday, Israeli
commandos had raided Rafah in the Gaza Strip and captured
two brothers, Mustafa and Osama Muamar, who, according to
the army, were in the "final stages of planning a
large-scale terror attack." All of this is well known but
did not make it to the front page. Can it be that
Palestinian lives are nothing, Israeli lives everything?
That Palestinian captives are nothing, Israeli captives
everything?

No it has not. All that's been proven is that some, though certainly not all, Israelis say it didn't happen. But ahy, that's the perps talking. Of course they deny it. What else can we expecyt of people like that.

But let's ask a doctor:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/28/1421222&mode=thread&tid=25

(snip)

AMY GOODMAN: The latest on the family that we last spoke to you about, that member -- a number of members of the family, of the Galia family, who were killed at the Gaza beach, and the conflicting reports. Human Rights Watch and you, yourself, as a doctor in the hospital, saying that it was as a result of Israeli shelling, and the Israeli military saying it was Palestinian bombs.

DR. MONA EL-FARRA: Yeah, yeah, okay. This is a big joke for me, and I’m totally, like all of us here in Gaza, totally convinced by the fact that it was Israeli shelling. I met the doctors who received the injured. I saw the injured myself, and the site of injuries show that it was not from mines. Minefield injuries are different from shelling injuries. The site of the injuries were in the upper side of the bodies. Beside, the shrapnel we found, it was the same like what we received in the case of Jabalia two years ago. So no matter what Israel is trying to say -- it is Palestinian mines -- this is not acceptable for us. And you forget all this. We don't need to add a new crime to the Israeli crimes. Even if this was from the Palestinian side, we have a large record of Israeli assault against Palestinians.

(snip)

Calling their critics names does not make the Zionist's allegations any more true.



>This Mone El-Farra has also been proven a liar by other doctors. That's several doctors' word against one doctor's word.


This is simply untrue. The doctors who work for the perps predictably try to cover up their comrades guilt by denying their guilt. That doesn't prove anything. Dr. El-Farra is not the only doctor making this claim.

Even if there were more doctors saying it was not an Israeli shell than there are doctors who say it was (which Scapegoated Jew has in no way demonstrated) it would still prove nothing. He's making an argumentum ad populum argument here, and trying to back it up with an unsubstantiated allegation. And he obviously believe you will fall for it. Truly, he takes you for idiots.

FWIW, though, as far as numbers go, *all* Gazans, believe it was an Israeli shell. They are not alone, far from it. Israel's decades long history of murder and lies has made it a non credible source of information about the crimes of which it is accused. They do this a lot. It is SOP for the IDF to massacre civilians and then they didn't do it. The world has grown wise to their ways. Only fools take Zionists at their word.

'this is simply untrue. The doctors who work for the perps predictably try to cover up their comrades guilt by denying their guilt.'

So if the Palestinians are the preps, as evidence indicates, then good ole Dr. Mona is predictably trying to cover up for her collegues, even if it means lying. They lied about little Muhammed al-Dura. They lied about Jenin. Makes perfect sense they'd lie about this.

Hard to imagine why they'd butcher up a body to remove all traces of shrapnell, if they didn't have something to hide.

This is begging the question. The evidence indicates no such thing. The evidence is consistent with the eyewitness accounts. Most human beings, and all objective investigators, believe it was an Israeli shell. It wasn't the first Israeli shell to slaughter innocent children. It wont be the last. Neither is this the first time the Zionists have blamed their victims. They often blame their victims. It's SOP.

At last, their victims are fighting back again. It's about time. Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees. The just and the righteous of earth cheer them from every continent, and wish them the ultimate victory they so rightly deserve. Yeah, it will take time. Rhodesia didn't fall in a day, either.

Israel Should Not Be Presumed Guilty of Gaza Beach Deaths

Much has been reported about an explosion on a Gaza beach on June 9, 2006 which killed 7 people, including 3 children. There has been a video shown repeatedly of a young girl wailing with grief there, coming upon the dead body of her father. Palestinians and their supporters have responded by blaming Israel and insisting that it was a deliberate "massacre" of civilians by Israel.

Many in the press are presuming that Israel is responsible for the deaths, but there is no proof of this, and the media and the world community should not rush to judgment. According to Ha'aretz military correspondent Amos Harel, an Israeli investigation has determined that it is highly unlikely that an errant Israeli shell was fired at the time of the explosion on the beach.

Israel's initial response was to offer medical help, to offer condolences, and apologize should it turn out that they were responsible for a missile going astray, stressing that they work hard to minimize any harm to civilians. They said they were investigating because they were not aware of firing at that area at that time. Nonetheless, many reports about the incident have been saying that it is "presumed" that Israel is responsible. Why? Based on what proof?

The Israelis investigating the incident have narrowed it down to several possible scenarios, with an errant Israeli shell being fired at the time of the explosion the least likely, since the Israelis had stopped firing approximately 15 minutes before the Gaza beach explosion. More likely causes are, according to the June 12 Amos Harel article on the IDF investigation:

* Unexploded IDF ordnance: In the past months the IDF has fired hundreds of shells in the area of Friday's incident. In some instances, Palestinian civilians were killed when they touched the unexploded shells including youths who sought to dismantle the ordnance in order to sell the metal. Israel has no means of pinpointing the location of the unexploded ordnance from previous operations.

* Detonation of a Palestinian bomb: Less than two weeks ago Israeli naval commandos operated in the northern Gaza Strip and ambushed a team of Qassam rocket operators. The Palestinians reported that groups of divers had arrived by sea, and militant forces announced that they would find ways to prevent any similar operations in the future. The possibility does exist that areas near the beach were mined and that the family members accidentally set off an explosive device that was intended to destroy a team of Israeli special-forces troops. Possible evidence of this hypothesis are Palestinian eye-witnesses who said that Hamas militants rushed to the site of the blast on Friday evening to collect remnants of the explosives.

...The key to solving the mystery will be in the analysis of the remnants of the shell or bomb that killed and injured the civilians. Three of those injured are hospitalized in Israel. If they were hurt by shrapnel, its origins can be determined." (Ha'aretz article, "IDF Hard-pressed to Pinpoint Cause of Gaza Beach Deaths")

It should also be recalled that:

* The Palestinians have in the past blamed Israel for deaths that were caused by their own bombs or weapons going off by accident or landing in the wrong place.

For example, a 10-year-old Palestinian girl was killed in January of 2005 by celebratory gunfire as several Palestinians departed for their pilgrimage to Mecca. Her death was initially blamed on the Israelis by PA and UN officials.

In another case, in November of 2001, a Palestinian security official initially blamed the death of 5 Palestinian children on an Israeli tank shell hitting a school, but later recanted.

* Palestinian rocket fire aimed at Israeli civilians has at times fallen short or gone astray and damaged Palestinian homes and killed Palestinians. For example, according to http://www.albawaba.com :

"...on the afternoon of 8 February 2006, an armed Palestinian group launched a locally made rocket from the town of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip at an Israeli target across the border. The rocket went astray, hitting a house belonging to Saber Mohammed Abdul Dayem, nearly 300 meters from the launching site. The rocket hit the southern part of 3-storey house, where 10 people live, said the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR.). Fire broke out, terrifying the family-members. The rocket exploded in the family's living room and destroyed all their furniture. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

This incident was not the first of its kind. On 2 August 2005, Palestinian armed groups launched three locally made rockets at Israeli targets. One of them went astray and hit a house belonging to the family of Al Ashqar east of the town of Beit Hanoun, also in the northern Strip. Fifty-year old Al Ashqar and his 6-year old son, Yasser, were killed. Nine other civilians, including five children, were also wounded in the attack. " www.albawaba.com/en/news/197801

The press should be more clear in its reports that the cause of the deaths is unknown and that Palestinian allegations should not automatically be believed because:

* According to a June 11th AP article,

"Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant, the head of Israel's southern command, said Sunday the military had proof it wasn't responsible [for the Gaza beach deaths]. He said the [Israeli] military suspended artillery fire 15 minutes before the explosion at the beach, Army Radio reported" (AP article, "Israeli airstrike kills 2 Hamas militants" by Ibrahim Barzak, AP Writers).

A while back my car was stolen. They caught the guy. In court, he said "Yeah. She told me I could use her car". My response "Yep. And I suggested you break the window and remove the ignition lock because I couldn't find the spare key"
When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras

POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS FOR DEATHS ON GAZA BEACH

1. the IDF did it purposely and now is lying
2. the IDF did it accidentally and now is lying
3. the Palestinians did it accidentally and are now blaming Israel
4. the Palestinians did it purposely and are now blaming Israel
5. it was faked by the Palestinians--no one died --
6. It was a false-flag op by the Mossad to make the Palestinians look bad

COMMMENTARY
1. goes against both stated and practiced policy of the IDF
no crater, timing wrong, no shrapnel of 155 mm howitzer IDF shell material found in survivors treated at Israeli hospitals; ALL IDF soldiers would have to be in on the conspiracy of silence; risks enormous Intl. condemnation if found out; goes against Jewish law
2. then why did IDF apologize for loss of civilian life? treat injured victims, and suspend its own artillery fire? why not start out by blaming the Palestinians?
3. this is MY top choice. I cannot bring myself to believe that
Palestinians would kill their own people just for PR; lots of similar incidents have happened in the past by PA; mining beach is reasonable hypothesis; so is the possibility that the beach-going family wasn't so innocent and had a "work accident"
4. horrible, but possible
5. some question here: where was the blood? Why didn't paramedics treat victims instead of wandering the beach; video shows Hamas members removing evidence from site; "dead" man lying next to dead father is seen alive with a gun at end of video clip; cameraman increasingly evasive in interview with German tv station; PA propaganda clip releaase shortly thereafter with wailing girl spliced between shots of Israeli NAVY!!
6. So Hamas would launch full scale war against Israel, and Israel could justifiably kick their butts. But where did they get the 11 "victims" to volunteer to get killed so Israel could attack Gaza? And why is Israel even now holding back?

NOTE TO LA.IMC MONITORS: I am reposting this without the photo on the assumption that this was hidden because of the photo i posted with it. However, after a careful review of your editorial policy, I cannot understand why this comment was hidden in the first place. I DO appreciate the work your volunteers do in keeping these threads readable, removing Bible-spam, Casino-spam, and remarks too offensive to stay posted.